News archive from 24 May 2015

Paolo Di Canio tried management by hand grenade. Current Swindon manager Mark Cooper uses a technique that is more like a comfort blanket.
And two years after volatile Italian Di Canio left the County Ground because he could not get more cash for a...

It was just four months ago when Jermaine Beckford woke up, suddenly unable to move and blacked out. His world was spinning and he claims with complete certainty that those few seconds could have ended his career.
The Preston North End loanee had no...

Nicolas Anelka is poised to spend a second spell with Indian Super League side Mumbai City.
The 36-year-old was forced to delay his debut in the ISL last year after serving out the remainder of his ban for quenelle gesture while at West Brom.
Indranil...

Tim Sherwood has predicted tears are likely to flow whatever the result of the FA Cup final against Arsenal - but he can at least daub his eyes with a claret handkerchief he helped design.
The Aston Villa manager had a hand in the production of the...

Yannick Ferreira Carrasco scored the winner as Monaco beat Lorient 1-0 to secure a third-place finish in the French league on Saturday and claim the final qualifying birth for the Champions League.
With newly-crowned champion Paris Saint-Germain and...

There were whispers around Norwich’s training ground and a few questioning glances exchanged when Alex Neil was appointed manager in January.
Some of the players are the same age as this 33-year-old who had just joined from Scottish Premiership side...

HIGHLANDER Gary Cornish insists he’s ready to become Scotland’s first British heavyweight champion after taking just four rounds to make history in his demolition of Hungarian Zoltan Csala.
The Scot continues to prove he’s the real deal after claiming...

Unfair childcare policies which restrict access for pre-schoolers should change, a think-tank has said.
Reform Scotland said parents should be able to use their government-funded nursery provision at all nurseries which meet the required standards.
It...

Kingsley Burrell, the man who died after being held in police custody, was poised to become a bodyguard to the stars, the Mercury has discovered.
And Mr Burrell had warned family members he was a marked man on the very day he contacted emergency...

Robin van Persie is a target for Michael Laudrup and Qatari side Lekhwiya.
The Manchester United striker is weighing up his options after talks with his representatives amid concerns he will be allowed to leave Old Trafford in the summer.
Louis van...

A Victoria Cross hero - the first pilot to down a zeppelin - is to be honoured by the Midland school where he boarded.
A commemorative stone will be placed at the entrance of King Edward VI School in Stratford as a tribute to the daring deeds of Great...

IRISH voters have resoundingly backed amending the constitution to legalise gay marriage after the world's first national vote on the issue.
As the ballot was counted yesterday, the only question appeared to be how large the Yes margin of victory from...

Skulking at the back of a packed room of politicians and journalists on Wednesday evening, an unkempt Stewart Wood, the Labour peer described as Ed Miliband’s éminence grise in the days when he needed one, was furiously making notes as a man in a...

As Labour embarks on its quest to find a new leader, it is in grave danger of repeating the mistakes of 2010, when an inward-facing party, focusing on a drawn-out internal debate, lost all momentum as an opposition and allowed the Conservative-Lib Dem...

SPAIN goes to the polls today to elect 13 regional governments and more than 8,000 town councils, including all the major cities.
With as many as 40 per cent of the electorate claiming to be undecided, the vote is a preview of the general election due...